Watch time on YouTube unlocks everything and learning how to get more watch time, increasing youtube watch time on the channel overall and boosting channel watch time from existing video traffic is easier than you think.

Get People Watching For Longer – How To Increase Watch Time on YouTube

There are many tools that are often overlooked in the pursuit of views and subscribers but these will boost your chances of ranking higher and supercharging your viewers watch time. Remember that session watch time and audience retention is key so use end cards, info cards and deep dive into the YouTube analytics, learn how to read the absolute audience retention graphs for your chance to decode the youtube algorithm.

How To Increase Unique Views on YouTube — Start Session Watch Time // Unique Views and Increasing Unique Viewers on YouTube could now be a new important YouTube Algorithm stat for you to focus on. Increasing session watch time, YouTube Watch Time, Video Impressions, Click through rate and now Unique video views and channel views are all traceable within the new YouTube analytics studio, but what does that mean to small youtubers?

1 — WHY ARE UNIQUE VIEWS IMPORTANT — A unique views are teh number of individuals that have seen your views or channel. These means if they watch your video 100 times it is still only 1 unique view, so a more acurate measurement of your audience size.

2 — UNIQUE VIEWS MEAN STARTING SESSIONS — Every time a unique view is started on YouTube it is an indication of a new session for that user for the day. This teaches YouTube that you can be influential enough to drive people to the site.

3 — JOIN FORUMS AND COMMUNITIES — Build trust for your name within a community and publish RELEVANT videos there.

4 — SOCIAL MEDIA — Social media is a great way to share your videos out and expand your spider web of reach. The larger the spider web the more “flies” or viewers you can lure back to your videos.

5 — BLOGS — Embed your videos into long blogs. If you write an article or blog post around the video content it can be great for search engine results outside of YouTube.

6 — SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION — Good video SEO can help you get seen and ranked on YouTube search pages. These can then give you the chance to win people over and win more views and watch time.

Note — Some of my links will be affiliate marketing links. These links do not affect the price of the products or services referred to but may offer commissions that are used to help me to fund the free YouTube video tutorials on this channel — thank you for your support.

How To Use Livestreaming To Increase Channel Watch Time // Many people ask How To Livestream on YouTube and How To Increase Channel Watch Time but now you can combine the two and live stream to increase YouTube channel watch time.

Alan Spicer YouTube Tips Channel — YouTube Tricks, YouTube Tips & YouTube Hacks to Help Grow Your YouTube Channel. I make YouTube Training Tutorials based on my personal experience on How To Increase YouTube Views, How To Gain YouTube Subscribers and How To Grow A YouTube Brand Online.

I have been on YouTube since 2013 growing an Entertainment and News Channel, MrHairyBrit. Within that time I have made many mistakes but have also learnt many YouTube Hacks that I want to share with you to help you Rank Your YouTube Videos On YouTube, Grow Your YouTube Channel and Get Your Brand Noticed On YouTube.

I also have a background in Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, and Web Design & Development.

Note — Some of my links will be affiliate marketing links. These links do not affect the price of the products or services referred to but may offer commissions that are used to help me to fund the free YouTube video tutorials on this channel — thank you for your support.

Increase YouTube Watch Time to help you rank your youtube videos better in search. How to increase youtube video watch time is a topic many small youtubers need help with. YouTube video retention and video watch time is a very important metric in the YouTube Algorithm that determines youtube search results. Bet more watch time and you get more views on youtube, get more views on youtube and you get more subscribers on youtube.

5 Ways To Increase YouTube Watch Time

1 – Increase YouTube Watch Time with Card Annotations – YouTube Cards help nudge viewers into watching other videos, playlists and related content. Why not guide them to where you want them to go, retain their attention and increase session watch time.
2 – Increase YouTube Watch Time with Thumbnail Branding – Make i easier for people to identify your content in search results and related suggested videos. This will help people find you and builds up a recognisable brand for loyal viewers to support.
3 – Increase YouTube Watch Time with Playlists – Playlists is a great way to increase session time and youtube video watch time. Adding a video to a playlist teaches YouTube that those videos are related and should be suggested together in future.
4 – Increase YouTube Watch Time by suggesting other related YouTubers – If a fellow YouTuber does similar content or can add value to your video by being related why not link them. Yes they may stop watching you videos but you are extending session watch time and YouTube will reward you for that.
5 – Increase YouTube Watch Time by being Social! – YouTube is not just a video platform, is is a SOCIAL NETWORK. You can increase your youtube watch time ut engaging people in your video comment sections, answer questions and get to know your viewers…. breed friendship and loyalty!
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Everyone Needs A YouTube Growth Strategy to Grow A YouTube Channel

Gaining YouTube Subscribers is getting harder and harder with an abundance of YouTubers entering the scene and people nowadays are pickier when choosing to subscribe to channels, as they don’t want to be bombarded with content they’re not interested in. The following YouTube Growth Strategy will allow you to gain subscribers more effectively and quicker than you have before. So get reading and start gaining a bunch of loyal subscribers!

Make use of YouTube Customisations – Branding YouTube Growth Strategy

Like any website you may visit, one of the few things you critique is the design, name/branding and the content on the page. The same can be said for a YouTube Channel. In a Branding YouTube Growth Strategy you have to establish credibility by having a completed channel which includes channel art such as Banners and Channel Icons, amount of videos and a completed bio. YouTube has a ton of customisation options to truly make the channel yours and brand yourself using the a Trailer Video, Icons and Headers, you can truly communicate who you are and what your videos are about with your Trailer Video and channel art.

Diversifying Content – YouTube Growth Strategy

One of the main factors of subscribers is views. Views are vital to gain subscribers without views how can people find and subscribe to your videos? There are two types of content fleeting and Evergreen. To Increase views you will need to have diverse content that pulls in viewers for a phase in time (fleeting) and indefinitely (evergreen)
Fleeting content describes videos that are only relevant for a certain time period that people will watch. For example Ice Bucket Challenge.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was fleeting, it was popular for a limited time frame of a few months and it was all people were watching. Lets say if you made a video about the ice bucket challenge that was humorous and contained compelling content it would have been watched a lot during that time frame but views would have fallen off towards the end of its popularity. In the process gaining you a lot of subscribers if Call to Actions were implemented correctly.
Evergreen content decribes videos that people are consistently viewing throughout the year. For evergreen content you have to put a lot of research into trends for example on Googles Trend Tool. If there is a niche or category that consistently brings in views you should do a video on the topic. For example, “How to clean make up brushes” People are always trying to clean their make up brushes throughout the year and its a problem a lot of people have. Should the video become an authority for this term it will gain views throughout the year for many years, no matter what happens.
It is not a fad. By using CTA (Call to Actions) and having compelling & related content these videos should pull in a lot of subscribers.

Call to Action (CTA) – Ask for engagement

A call to action is a vital part of a YouTube Growth Strategy and is basically asking the viewer to do something. For us, we want them to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Call to actions are an absolute godsend to YouTubers and can be used to increase subscribers exponentially if used correctly.
There a few ways to place a call to action in a video such as Annotation, which are those small subscribe pop up text or buttons that show up at the bottom of the page. In these annotations you put a button with a link to subscribe to your channel. You can also ask in a more personal way by asking during the video, usually during the start and end is the best time to ask as users are most engaged at the start and gives a reminder at the end, with a mixture of both you can increase your subscribers by implementing this simple feature within your videos.

Distribution of Content – Share Your Video, Get Seen!

As said above without views your content is nothing. The more you get people watching videos, the more people can subscribe. Distribution is an important part of a YouTube Growth Strategy and you should share videos at any moment you can. You cannot simply place content and expect people to come find it, you have to show them where it is. There are many ways to do this.Facebook – On Facebook you can post your content on your page so your friends and extended network can find it. You can also place the video in Facebook groups, when placing in facebook groups make sure the facebook group’s interests align with the content in your video. Therefore they will find it interesting and be more likely to subscribe.Twitter – With the use of Hashtags you can post a link to your video so your followers and audience can see it, as well as hashtag the tweet with a relevant area for example #Kyshadow and @kyliejenner for a KyShadow review to increase exposure.Reddit – Reddit is an interesting source of views, as described above it is fleeting but if you post in the relevant section on reddit with compelling content it has the opportunity to bring in a large audience to your video if it gets upvoted by the community. In some cases, Small and Medium youtubers have gone viral with the use of reddit which really built up their audiences.
Forums/Blogs – Blogs and forums are also a great way to bring in views, by guest posting or commenting with a link to your video on a topic that is related to your video you can also bring in some new viewers who may subscribe.

Collaborations – Make Friends

Collaborations are an excellent source of new subscribers that is beneficial for both YouTubers. When collaborating you gain access to another YouTubers audience and they gain access to yours. When doing collaborations as part of a YouTube Growth Strategy, do them with people who have a similar sized audience, lets say you have 4000 subscribers, try and do collaborations with those who have an audience of 3000-5000 subscribers as they are more likely to accept collaboration requests. You should also make sure that the videos your making and that their making are related in some way. For example You’re both gaming youtubers, you should do a collab with another gaming YouTuber as their audience is also interested in gaming, it would not be effective to do a Gaming & Beauty Channel collab as gaming subscribers may not be interested in beauty and vice versa.

Intro, Outro and Channel Trailer

These are vital elements of any YouTube Channel. They show viewers who you are and what you make videos about. The channel trailer is the first thing a newcomer to your channel will see and this is the moment you have to impress them, and gain them as a subscriber. A good trailer is one that’s informative and under one minute. The use of intro’s is always important as it re-enforces your branding, as well as a video outro which you can link to other youtube videos so they can keep watching or give them the option to subscribe and like the video (Call to Action).

Consistency – Everyone Loves A Regular TV Show

Consistency is key as the saying goes and YouTube is no different. Viewers want to see a consistent stream of videos. If you really want to be a youtuber you should enjoy making videos and it should have to be a task. Therefore uploading videos on a regular schedule should be no problem and with more videos = more reach for views = more subscribers. By uploading frequently on a regular YouTube Growth Strategy schedule you are building a good relationship with your existing subscribers and developing new subscribers through new videos which will expand your reach.

Interaction & Personality

If you’re a growing youtuber you should interact with your audience wherever you can, if they ask questions in the comment or compliment your video, interact and thank them. This will let your audience know you’re there for them and they will become loyal subscribers. Even seeing a YouTuber respond in the comments makes me like them and makes me want to subscribe as it shows me that they care for their audience and their work.

YouTube Video Optimisation – Video SEO

Video optimisation is absolutely essential for subscribers. Video optimisation allows you to rank well in YouTubes Search and Related videos section. This includes Title, Description and Tags. You should have a relevant and stand out title. For Fleeting videos make the title snappy and out there, for Evergreen Videos make it out there you should do some keyword research. Keyword research entails finding out what people are searching for using Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Type in a few terms and suggestions and related terms will come up. For example “5 Best MakeUp Brush”. You should try to target medium and high search volume keywords.

YouTube Giveaways

Giveaways are the incentivized way of getting new subscribers. When doing giveaways as part of a YouTube Growth Strategy try and make the giveaway item as relevant to your topic area as possible for example if you’re a gamer maybe give away a controller, this will ensure any potential subscriber who subscribes to win the giveaway item has a real interest in the topic you’re making videos about. When doing a giveaway you should ask the audience to subscribe and share the content on social media such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. This will also gain you new viewers from their bunch of followers too!

Overall YouTube Watch Time Is The Secret To Growth

Overall video watch time or audience retention rate is vital factor of ranking when it comes to YouTube. YouTube watch time is how long viewers watch your videos before they drop off or leave a video, having a video watched for the full duration or more than half the video can improve your ranking in YouTube Search as well as improve ad CPM’s, therefore it is important that we can improve this metric in our videos. With Programmes like YouTube RED programme, if your content has a low retention rate (YouTube Watch Time) it correlates to a low payout from the RED programme.

Optimize Entry Points – Increase YouTube Watch Time

Your thumbnail and title are the first thing that a viewer will see and will get them to click through into your video. You must have a compelling and interesting title and thumbnail, but they must be accurate to the content and not be deceptive clickbait titles or thumbnails. If you use misleading titles or thumbnails, it will negatively affect YouTube watch time as the viewer will immediately feel mislead which will result in them leaving the video early and leaving a thumbs down.

Use YouTube Analytics – Investigate YouTube Watch Time

YouTube Analytics is a great tool for finding out why your audience is dropping off and lowering their watch time of the videos. If you check the audience retention report on YouTube Analytics you can find out which videos have low view times. If you find a trend in low view times in videos you can see what each have in common, for example if they’re dropping off within the first 15-30 seconds you should follow the 15 second rule to optimize the content, but if they’re dropping off halfway in each video you should see if there is any relation between the video eg. the video gets slower or has less energy which are the most common reasons for drop off, to combat this you can use annotations to prompt users to keep watching or simply telling them to stick around to see whats coming up.

Create Quality Video Content – Quality = Better YouTube Watch Time

Creating quality video content is an obvious one, but it is one of the most important factors. Why would you watch a video that didnt have interesting content? The higher the quality of your content and originality the higher the youtube watch time generally is. The user will be engrossed in the video and more likely to watch if it is something they haven’t seen before. You can achieve this by using your own style in videos and not blatantly copying other youtubers styles. Voice your opinions, spark interest, and interact with your audience by posing questions and call to actions.
Editing is also a big part of creating quality video content. You should edit your video effectively by creating interesting openings, use of cuts to edit out the boring or unrelated parts that aren’t interesting and only keeping in the compelling parts to maintain interest throughout the video. Make sure to test the video out on your friends or fellow youtubers before uploading to get an honest opinion and feedback on the video.

The 15 Second Rule – Hook Them Quickly and Gain YouTube Watch Time

When creating a video you need to grab the viewer’s attention within the first 15 seconds. If using an intro limit it to less than 5 seconds as if its longer it takes too long to get to the actual content. In order to capture the attention in the first 15 seconds you must place compelling content first with the information that the user is expecting or a build up to it. Don’t start off with boring information that is irrelevant to the video content. At the start of the video you need to channel all of your energy, be completely outgoing, energetic and fast paced and try keep it up throughout the video as this style of behaviour is highly engaging.

Video Linking and Annotations – Keep Them Watching!

The use of video linking and use of annotations in older videos, can help build YouTube watch time as users to continue watching your other videos by linking them to newer videos or continue to stay watching the current videos by asking them to stick around to find out more in areas that they usually drop off (eg. mid video) .This will increase your overall watch time since they are watching more of your video content.